It was the most important non-conference game on the Division
III calendar for more than three decades. The two participants made
a combined 22 championship game appearances in the 34-year history
of the division, accounting for 11 crowns. It was a contest so big
that they had to come up with two names for it.

The annual Eastern Shore of Maryland conflict between Salisbury
and Washington College – known as both the Charles B. Clark
Cup and the more familiar 'War on the Shore' – is on par with
any collegiate rivalry in any sport in any division, and everyone
knew that it would take place on the third Saturday of April every
year.

"For 24 years, we've played that game on that day," said
long-time Salisbury head coach Jim Berkman.

Things changed last year.

The game, which is an event for the two campuses and alumni
bases, was played prior to the third Saturday in April. It was
played on April 17. It was played on a Wednesday night.

A midweek War on the Shore? Why?

There's no question that the rivalry has lost a little bit of
its gloss. The Division III season is now littered with marquee
non-conference games that at least match the significance of the
Clark Cup, albeit typically not in late April. Salisbury's 10-year
winning streak entering last season, which included several routs,
also put a dent in the majesty of the competition. Perhaps it was
time to dial back the prominence of the contest?

That actually had nothing to do with it. The game means just as
much to the teams, schools and fan bases as it did in 1981, 1991
and 2001, but there were other unseen factors at play.

"Both conferences moved their conference dates," said Washington
College head coach Jeff Shirk. "We bumped ours a week later and
[Salisbury's] conference bumped theirs a week earlier, so there
were some major conflicts."

Instead of having April 20 – the third Saturday in the
month – open for the usual match-up with the Sea Gulls last
year, Washington College had a league game with Gettysburg. It
ended up as an open Saturday for Salisbury. And there will be no
return to normalcy this spring. Because of further entanglements,
the once-heralded contest between two of the traditional Division
III powers will be played on Tuesday night, March 18. It's a game
that will be played at Salisbury, a campus that will be mostly
empty because of spring break.

"It's frustrating when you've played a game on a certain date
for a number of years and then all of a sudden that conference
doesn't accommodate that team," Berkman said. "Why didn't it
happen? I have absolutely no idea. Somehow, our conferences have
managed to work it out for 24 years, but over the last two years,
it hasn't worked. That's a big game. It's one of the best games in
college lacrosse, and now we're putting it on a Tuesday night
during spring break? It doesn't have the same atmosphere."

Welcome to the world of scheduling, Division III-style. It's a
land of conference obligations, traditional rivalries, budgetary
confines, missed class time hobgoblins, and strength of schedule
ambitions. Every coach is on a quixotic quest for the perfect
schedule, but every school has its special hurdles to clear en
route. When the opponents are finally posted on the school's
website just about this time of year, they look neat and clean.
Putting a slate together is anything but.

* * *

Where should we begin when breaking down the particulars of
putting together a schedule? Well, let's start with what the
coaches begin with: the conference. Everything begins and ends with
the league slate.

"In the old days, we used to make the whole schedule ourselves,"
said Roanoke head coach Bill Pilat. "There were 16 games or so and
you'd make all 16. Now, schools that are in a conference are given
their schedule."

The primacy of conference play is a relatively new concept,
gaining momentum in the last 10 or 12 years, and it's one that was
adopted in order to give an avenue for every team to gain access to
the NCAA tournament, regardless of travel budgets and other
resources. It is not an illogical approach, but how it's applied
can sometimes pose problems to specific sports.

"What I think some people miss and don't understand is in
Division III the presidents are not deciding things with each
sport, but with all sports being equal," said Denison head coach
Mike Caravana. "The way that they set it up is that our way of
getting to the championship is really no different than field
hockey or men's basketball. It was a cost-containment issue."

For a school like Denison, located in Ohio, scheduling quality
non-conference basketball games is a lot easier than lacrosse,
especially for a traditionally strong program like the Big Red.
There are plenty of programs around, but in order to be considered
for the tournament, quality is the name of the game. And in the
quest for a strong strength of schedule, avoiding weaker teams is
nearly as important as adding healthy ones.

Denison's geographic plight has been compounded by recent
events. The Big Red's conference, the North Coast Athletic
Conference, has operated for much of its existence with six teams
– one short of the NCAA mandated limit to be an automatic
qualifying conference. As such, Denison played a conference
schedule and crowned a league champion, but it held no
significance. The NCAC squads were judged with the other
independent, or Pool B, teams and not necessarily against their
league. The schedule was composed with that in mind.

Last year, NCAC schools DePauw (Ind.) and Hiram (Ohio) added
lacrosse programs, pushing the league into the AQ realm (Wabash
will join in 2015). Not only were Denison and Ohio Wesleyan forced
to compete within an entirely different arena, they were forced to
do it with significantly fewer openings.

"We've lost five dates in the last two years to play
non-conference teams," Caravana said. "People aren't aware of that.
There are three new teams added to our conference, which are three
new dates that have to be added and we're limited by the number of
dates the NCAA allows us to play. Then you add a conference
tournament, which is two dates. So that's five dates and two and a
half weeks of playing if you're talking Wednesday and Saturday. And
we're not alone."

The NCAC is just one of many conferences that have changed their
shape over the past couple of years, and with each alteration comes
changes to the conference schedule.

"The changeover from the Empire 8 to the Liberty was my biggest
challenge," said RIT head coach Jake Coon, who guided the Tigers
move in 2012. "We had all those other teams in and then we had to
figure out who we were going to continue playing and who we weren't
and try to fit those into certain slots."

The Midwest Lacrosse Conference is one of the newest AQ leagues
and it has grown seemingly every year. It now boasts 11 teams,
which has gotten problematic for Carthage (Wis.) head coach Dave
Neff. "That's our big issue now; just the size and growth of that
particular conference," he said.

Having access to that many games is seen as a positive for many
programs in up-and-coming areas, but for teams that want to up
their stature in the division, burning 10 of the NCAA allotted 17
dates with conference games is problematic. As such, Neff isn't
afraid of playing doubleheaders – a rarity in the men's game
because of the physical nature of the sport. Carthage will play
both Calvin and Albion on Feb. 7 and then Dubuque and Illinois
Wesleyan on April 12.

"It's about getting my kids as much on the field out of
conference as possible," Neff said. "These kids play five games in
two or three days all summer and even in high school they have
weekend tournament, so we're not really worried about it from an
injury or physical standpoint. We just see a lot of value in
playing as much as possible; taking advantage that day of contest
that we're allowed."

Shortly after Neff spoke about the travails of a large
conference, he got his wish, but one headache might be replaced by
another. The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW)
– Carthage's traditional league – announced that it was
sponsoring lacrosse in 2015, meaning the Red Men will be out from
underneath the MLC monolith. Now, however, they'll have to fill up
those dates with teams willing to play them.

The NESCAC, which is one of the most established conferences in
Division III, has its conference peccadilloes, as well. The
addition of Hamilton threw the league schedule out of whack for the
2012 season, forcing each team to have one weekend every season
when they played two games back-to-back. The conference later
deemed that to be an unsafe policy, but the NESCAC's late start
– teams aren't allowed to start practice until Feb. 15, a
full month after what the NCAA allows – and the mandate that
any conference game over a certain distance away be played on a
weekend to avoid class conflicts leaves little wiggle room.

"When the NESCAC gives us the schedule, pretty much every
Saturday from the first game of the season onward is going to be a
conference game," said Connecticut College coach Dave Cornell.

The NESCAC coaches also must deal with what is a universal
complaint from nearly all the coaches putting their schedules
together: when they receive future dates.

"For better or for worse, the NESCAC has been fairly late in
getting our conference schedule," said Amherst head coach Jon
Thompson. "The NESCAC office has typically not gotten us schedules
until mid-year the year before, which hamstrings us a little bit in
scheduling other out of conference games."

The timing of schedule release varies from conference to
conference. The Centennial does its scheduling in four year blocks,
so those coaches already received 2013 through 2016 at the same
time. Other leagues, including the NESCAC, CAC and those that have
endured changes, hand out their dates less than a year in advance.
Most of the coaches already have their 2015 league slates, but
almost all of them would love to have it even earlier.

"We're sometimes handicapped by when the conference gets us the
schedule out to us and how many years out," said Stevenson head
coach Paul Cantabene. "At Stevenson, we like to have our schedule
done at least two years in advance so we don't have to worry about
anything, but sometimes we're dependent on the conference."

"The problem is the conference seems to lag behind in getting
you stuff in advance," added Berkman. "So you're always wondering
and trying to know what it is going to be, but it's not like two or
three years ahead of time when you know who you're going to play.
That throws a little bit of a wrinkle into it because if you're
trying to get a good out of conference schedule, the further in
advance the conference would be able to get it to you, the easier
it would be to do that stuff."

Fortunately, in most conferences coaches can guesstimate roughly
when their conference schedule will begin, allowing them to
comfortably create non-conference match-ups early in the
season.

"We've had little or no change in the number of teams in our
conference for quite a few years, so it might be a little bit
easier for us to schedule ahead of time," said Cortland head coach
Steve Beville, whose team plays in the SUNYAC. "Some of the other
conferences have seen significant changes and that makes it a
little more difficult with the conference schedule. They have a
wait and see thing from year to year with who's in and who's out.
We haven't had that. From March 31 through April 31, we know we
have our league schedule."

Back-ending the conference schedule was a way to not only allow
for easier future scheduling, but it was also another function of
individual leagues' prominence amid the landscape of Division III
and its NCAA tourney.

"When I first came into this league, I remember W&L playing
a Guilford around the last weekend in February," said Lynchburg
head coach Steve Koudelka, who first helmed the Hornets in 1997.
"'Why is that happening?' We all sat down as coaches and agreed
– especially with the AQ becoming more prevalent – hey,
let's not be doing those games in February when our teams aren't at
full strength. Let's move this schedule back and also not jam it
into the month of April, but try to spread it out from the middle
of the March to the middle of April and then we'll have the
conference tournament."

Nearly all of the conferences have this mini-luxury of knowing
approximately when their conference schedule starts. The glaring
exception is the NESCAC. Because of its late start (although the
NESCAC will have its first game a week earlier this year on March
1) and academic stipulations, the first game is always against
another league foe. Since the NESCAC league slate encompasses the
entirety of the year, guessing at potential open dates is a
dangerous endeavor.

"I feel very uncomfortable projecting the NESCAC schedule,"
admitted Thompson. "It's only been five years, but it has felt like
[the schedule] has changed every two. And it's the smallest of
changes, like who is hosting the game. We played at Tufts for two
years in a row, so you would have thought my second year we'd be at
home if I projected out. But actually, no, we went back to Tufts.
I'm uncomfortable saying this is what I think is going to happen,
so let's pencil something in, and end up putting an out-of-league
coach in a bind because what I thought was a home game against a
school is now a road game and I can't back out of that one. Maybe
some of the coaches who have been in the league longer have a
better idea of how it changes, but I'm not confident in our
schedule one year from now and two years from now."

There is also a gap between the ability to move conference games
around. For some it's relatively easy, and it others it takes an
act of congress. In the Centennial, there is an ability to move a
game, but the schedule must remain in the order that it was given.
For instance, Shirk said that because of a campus function, their
league game against Muhlenberg was bumped up from Saturday to a
Friday night. Other conferences allow for a little more leeway in
finagling conference tilts. In the past, the Colonial States
Athletic Conference has determined that Rosemont and Cabrini play
on a Saturday.

"Literally, we could walk to Rosemont if we had to, so to use a
Saturday, if we're in conference, I'd rather go to Centenary that
is two and a half hours so the kids aren't missing class," said
Cabrini head coach Steve Colfer. "So we'll flip the Rosemont game
to a Wednesday at 6 p.m., where it's a mile down the road instead
of going to Centenary on a Wednesday when we have to get on a bus
at 11 a.m. I know our commissioner and assistant commissioner try
to account for that, but sometimes there are little nuances we try
to avoid."

Some conferences even allow for non-conference action to trump
league schedules, assuming that all parties involved are willing,
although those leagues are certainly in the minority.

"We moved a game last year against Messiah so we could play
Gettysburg," said Widener head coach Brendan Dawson. "The Messiah
coach was really understanding. I think he understood that it
wasn't just good for us, but would help the conference. We need to
play teams like that to remain competitive and build up the image
of the MAC."

With the understanding that the conferences, in their many forms
and with their various rules, take precedent for the most part,
what is the next step for a coach putting together a schedule?

* * *

Cortland will play 10 non-conference games in 2014, and the Red
Dragons will play one of the stiffest schedules in the country.
This is not surprising considering the stature of the program. More
surprising is the fact that only four of those games will be played
at Cortland's home venue.

Balancing home and away is a priority for some programs –
Washington College's Shirk lists it as his top goal in scheduling
– and there are other issues like travel time, budgetary
constraints and other obstacles. For nearly all of the coaches,
regardless of their ultimate aspirations, one priority trumps all.
And it's the reason that Cortland is on the road so much this
spring.

"You've got to find a way to play as many tough opponents as you
can," Beville said. "That's always No. 1. You get those games,
period. There have been times when we've had to be on the road
quite a bit, but the overriding factor is at the end of the year
when that committee sits down and does all their math and looks at
their figures and indexes, the No. 1 factor is going to be the
strength of your opponents. In my opinion, you just have to find a
way. If it's budgetary, you have to fundraise a little bit more. If
it's a travel thing, you have to realize that's going to be a part
of it if you can't get the home games."

"Quality of opponents is the most important at this point," said
RIT's Coon. "We need to make sure that we're beefing up our
schedule so that when it comes down to tournament time and in case
you don't win your league, you still have a strong strength of
schedule to get that at-large bid. We're always trying to beef it
up. In 2015, we've added Middlebury. We're always trying to get the
best games possible while also keeping that other stuff in mind,
like home and away, travel costs and so on."

The relative paucity of at-large bids – there are only
five again this year for well over a hundred teams that don't win
their conference tournament – means that there is an
ever-increasing arms race to stack schedules with the best teams
possible. There are drawbacks to this, but the necessity is pretty
clear.

"The prime example is you look at Wesleyan last year," said
Connecticut College's Cornell. "They were a very good team with a
very good record and they went to the NESCAC championship game and
they didn't even get regionally ranked. They weren't in the Top 15
in the north! If that doesn't say you need to get some regionally
ranked teams on your schedule..."

There are a couple of teams that have the wherewithal to get the
best games no matter the circumstances. Cortland and Stevenson are
two teams that have shown an ability to buck many of the travel and
budgetary harnesses that hold back other programs. The Red Dragons
are making a non-spring break trek to Baltimore to play a pair of
games in a weekend while the Mustangs are traveling up to Syracuse
to play RIT in the Carrier Dome to open the season.

Most programs are searching for the best teams, but within
certain boundaries.

"Every program is a little bit different," said Cabrini's
Colfer. "Some schools whose conference may be more competitive top
to bottom, they have to look at their non-conference differently.
For a conference that is still developing and may not have the
quality all the way through, the non-conference is looked at in a
very different light. For us, we look at trying to build as many
Top 20 schools into our schedule as possible. Competitive
scheduling top to bottom is a priority."

"I think quality is No. 1, and it has to be quality within a
certain travel distance," said Dickinson head coach Dave Webster.
"And when I say quality, it's important to Dickinson and the
[school's] overall mission that we try to play quality schools that
are regionally based but are also of similar academic credentials.
You want to play your peers and like institutions, as well."

Because of the geographical density of eastern Pennsylvania, and
other areas on the East Coast, those schools are operating under a
completely different set of parameters than schools farther to the
west.

"For Dickinson to get the money when they really don't have to
come out here to Ohio and spend an overnight, it makes it difficult
for us," said Denison's Caravana. "You have to anticipate that
someone's cost to come out to Ohio and going back there. Say it's
in excess of four hours. That might warrant an overnight. Then
you're looking at $4,000 cost just to take your team there. That's
not a small amount of money when you look across all your athletic
programs. If we have a school of 23 teams, and you add it up, it
becomes expensive. We look for home and away. We look at the
quality of opponent. And then figure out budgetarily if we can
swing that. Can we find a neutral site where both teams can travel
to?"

Denison's plight is really an issue of relativity. Caravana
talks about how four hour trips necessitate an overnight, while
Berkman and Pilat say five hours pretty much triggers a hotel stay.
The staff and players at Carthage, located just south of Milwaukee,
can't help but chuckle.

"We'll leave on a Friday afternoon and get back late on Sunday
after a 10 or 12 hour bus ride," said Neff. "A couple of times
we've driven 10 hours, gotten off the bus and played a game."

Neff's challenge at Carthage is two-fold. The Red Men, like many
teams trying to break into the next level, don't have the strength
that the top teams crave nor a favorable location.

"We've stepped up and said we are willing to play anybody who
will give us the opportunity," Neff said. "Wooster and Wittenberg
were both on the schedule before [last] season started and then
were canceled because they had budget issues. It's not as easy as
saying, 'Hey, we want to play these teams.' We have the worst of
both situations because we can't encourage people to come and play
us because we don't have great weather and we don't have the
reputation of a Denison. It's harder to find those quality games
that you are really looking for out of conference."

With the advent of the CCIW, Carthage will be moving into the
Pool B (independent) realm next year, one that Colorado College has
spent most of its existence. As the only Division III school in its
entire time zone, the Tigers' scheduling issues are obvious, but
there is a science to it.

"We try to get quality teams so we can hopefully have a good
showing against them so the committee sees that Colorado College
may be 10-5 or whatever, but our losses are against Lynchburg or
Roanoke or other solid teams," said Colorado College head coach
Sean Woods. "Also, since we're Pool B, we try to match up with some
of the Pool B threats so we can have some head-to-heads throughout
the season. We're playing Otterbein and Sewanee while Whittier and
Eastern are also threats. And then you have to make sure to have
teams that will challenge you toward the end of the season so you
can be ready for playoff ball."

Woods said that Colorado College likely has the biggest budget
in the division, which includes the ability to give assistance
– known as "guarantee money" – to opponents making the
trip to Colorado Springs. Because of their "block system" academic
calendar, the Tigers also have a four-day weekend at the end of
each month helping to mitigate the missed class time obstacle.
Still, there aren't many coaches who would like to have Colorado
College's problems, with the possible exception of Whittier –
the only D-III school in the Pacific time zone.

* * *

Perhaps the biggest opportunity – and wild card –
for Division III coaches as they put together their non-conference
schedules is spring break. For some institutions, the break is
useless. At Bates, a member of the NESCAC, it occurs during the
first week of practice in February. At Salisbury, conference
obligations have neutered the Gulls' break, although it did provide
a home for the War on the Shore.

"We used to have a really nice spring break," Berkman said.
"There were years when we went to Florida and we played some good
games down there. We played Nazareth one year, St. Lawrence
another, along with a couple of clashes with Bowdoin. But now
because of the way they back-loaded conference schedules –
and you basically can't even change games in our conference –
we've got Frostburg on one end and York on the other. And this year
with the screw up of Washington not getting the date from their
conference when we were supposed to play, we're playing them on
spring break."

Connecticut College has a two-week spring break, but the length
of any trip – if there is one at all – is pretty much a
crapshoot. The Camels have four conference games scheduled during
their hiatus, which hems them in. However, if there is another
league team with a spring break that overlaps, then the possibility
for travel is there. In years past, Conn. College and Williams
shared a spring break, so they played in Florida, Washington, D.C.,
and Baltimore. "That gave us the ability to play another team while
we're down there, and they are sometimes North region teams that
happened to be down there," said Cornell.

They've played Union in the past along with last year's clash
with Plattsburgh. The Camels and Cardinals will renew acquaintances
again this spring, but it will be a truncated trip.

"This year, we're not playing any NESCACs at a neutral site
because our spring breaks didn't overlap with the schedule,"
Cornell said. "Our spring break is two weeks long, but we'll only
be away from campus for three days. We're going down to Annapolis
for three days, but if it overlapped, we could go for a week.
That's a pain in the neck."

It's not just a NESCAC thing.

"We weren't able to travel much because we're playing Stevens
down on the [Long Island] at the start of the break and RIT in the
Carrier Dome in the middle," said Cortland's Beville. "The
importance of those two games overrode our desire to travel. Break
or no break, we're just finding the best opponents. You have to
weigh all the factors and reward the kids by getting them south
when you can, but this particular year [spring break] didn't
happen."

"Schools on the outlying areas like us that play with a lot of
the top teams, we end up playing a spring break trip where we're
playing three very good teams because we're already there and there
is already a cost involved," said Caravana. "You want to play the
games so you have three tough games in seven days. We're playing
Stevens on Saturday, St. Mary's on Wednesday and Dickinson on
Saturday. That's a tough week. But that's part of what you have to
do to play a more national schedule. You have to be fiscally
prudent, responsible and give the kids the opportunity to play that
schedule."

Creating a schedule is obviously multifactorial, but at its core
– at least at the Division III level where the coaches don't
have the luxury of pawning off important details to support staff
– it will always involve the human element. Budgets, travel
and strength of schedule are always in play, but without a
productive rapport between coaches and a worthwhile time for all
involved, non-conference games won't happen. This is true
regardless of whether they make sense or a fan base wants them.

"Hopefully you have a really competitive experience," Berkman
said. "If it's a good environment and everybody is positive on both
sides, win or lose, you want to continue that relationship and you
want to keep playing that opponent."

"I want to coach against well-coached teams," Thompson said.
"I'm sure there are a zillion well-coached teams out there, but I
know every single year that Sean Quirk at Endicott is going to be
very good and every single year Keith Bugbee at Springfield is
going to be very good. Not only do I reach out to coaches of
well-coached teams, but those coaches become friends. I hope to
always play Endicott, Western New England and Springfield. That's
another piece of the equation."

Since a lot of schedules can't be set up years in advance due to
conference hang-ups, relationships are often times as good as
contracts.

"You just become friendly with guys in the business," Colfer
said. "You have a quality experience when visiting their campus,
they have a quality venue, there is a good hotel in town and a nice
little restaurant that takes teams. We're creatures of habit and if
we establish a relationship with a good program and it's a good
experience for our student-athletes then we try to go back to the
well. We'll play [Gettysburg's] Hank Janczyk and before the game
I'll say, 'Hi, Coach, how are you doing? Good, Steve, how are you?
Good. Are we doing this next year? Yeah, yeah, we're good.'"

"It depends on the coach," added Cantabene. "Some coaches you
have a two-year agreement and other coaches you don't have a
contract, you just know you want to play every year. Me and
[Lynchburg's] Coach Koudelka, we don't have a two- or four-year
contract, we just like playing each other every year so we
flip-flop the sites and that's a great game for both teams to play.
There are some gentlemen's agreements and there are also some
contracts that you have to sign to nail things down."

"It's funny, when I first got the job here, Coach Berkman called
me and said, 'Hey, you owe us a game," said Widener's Dawson, who
played for Berkman at Salisbury. "I said, 'OK, coach.' It was like
I was playing for him again! We scheduled a game with them and
we'll keep that game as long as we can. That, and having Dickinson
on the schedule. I used to coach with Dave [Webster] and was an
assistant there in '08 and '09."

Creating relationships within the coaching committee doesn't
always lead to a game, but keeping the door open for that rare
opportunity to fill the gap is important.

"Sometimes it doesn't work out," Beville said. "We'd love to
play Salisbury every year but me and Jimmy just can't find a date
to play. That gets frustrating sometimes; not being able to work
out dates from a travel perspective. All you can do is try and
keeping communications open."

"Jon Thompson is one of my good buddies and we talk about
getting an Amherst-Washington College game going; getting the whole
NESCAC-Centennial thing on the schedule," Shirk said.

* * *

As with any interaction, coaching relationships aren't always
warm and fuzzy. This is especially true when a coach receives the
11th hour notification that a contest they assumed was a done deal
isn't.

"That's the worst," said Webster.

"We've had to deal with that the last couple of years,"
Cantabene said. "That's really tough because when you get later and
later, it's tougher and tougher to move things around."

The reasons for late cancellations, which can happen all the way
up through November for the upcoming seasons, vary. There are the
aforementioned conference changes that can gum up previous
non-conference rivalries, and last minute budget issues can sink
agreements. Many times, a new coach will come on board and deem
that they no longer want certain games on the docket, and pull the
plug late in the process. Regardless of the reasons, it can quickly
change the dynamic of a relationship, although not necessarily for
good.

"This is everybody's profession and their livelihood. It's not
like we're a bunch of gym teachers here," Thompson said. "I get it.
Everybody has to do what is best for their own program. If that
means keeping a commitment, I hope that happens more often than
not. I don't look at as anything personal; this guy just had to do
what's best for his program. Is it annoying? Absolutely. But it all
washes itself out in the end."

"We're all gentlemen about this, but if someone dropped us right
now, that would be a tough thing to handle," Koudelka said.

There is someone who helps mitigate late cancellations, and he's
the most important man in lacrosse scheduling, regardless of
division. John Spring is the executive director of the USILA, and
with that title comes many hats. One of his key roles is as a
matchmaker for teams who found out that their schedule is not what
it seemed. He'll receive a notification that a team is looking for
a game, and then email that opening to every other coach in the
division.

"You always see those emails from John pop up: 'Due to a last
minute cancellation...,' said Colorado College's Woods.

"It's upsetting," said Spring, a former coach. "I've gone
through that myself back in my old days and you think you've got
your schedule all set and you're ready to roll and then, all of a
sudden... Particularly if it's an early season game. It's pretty
embarrassing from your standpoint to call somebody up and say,
'I've got to pull out of this game.' It hurts on both ends. I don't
think guys like to do it and they don't like to hear it,
either."

Spring also is a conduit for the coaches early on in the
scheduling process. His busiest time of year is during the season
when he estimates that he receives four or five scheduling emails a
day.

"We use [Spring] all the time," Shirk said. "You call one or two
guys who you were trying to get games with, but if that doesn't'
work out, contact John and he gets it out and that's when you start
getting emails. 'We have an open date, can we work it out?'"

"I usually don't need to do it because we have so many schools
nearby, but this year, I actually did," said RIT's Coon. "We
weren't sure what we were going to do on break and we were looking
for a Wednesday game. I had a couple of colleges contact me. I have
a good relationship with [Colby coach Jack] Sandler, so when he
called me, I said, 'This is going to work out good.'"

"Some of the guys will say they are going on a spring break trip
and we're going to be going through Baltimore on February such and
such," Spring said. "Is anybody available? Oh, and we've got these
open dates, too. When you see that all of these holes are filled
and everything worked, it's kind of gratifying to know that they
survived another year and got the same number of games in that they
wanted."

* * *

The iconic nature of the War on the Shore is due in part to
tradition and setting the schedule to the same day every year was
part of that. Changing it irks Berkman because of his respect for
the history of the sport. It's one of the reasons why the Sea Gulls
aren't jumping at the opportunity to add teams that may help them
more on Selection Sunday, but lack traditional gravitas.

"Ohio Wesleyan and Salisbury have been playing since 1989, so
I'm not going to throw out that game just so I can go play Tufts,"
Berkman said. "That doesn't makes any sense to me because I believe
in history and I believe in tradition and we've had some battles
over the years. I don't want to just go play the top three teams in
the north now because if I do that I'll have to throw away games
against Roanoke or Lynchburg. You've got to give up something that
is pretty good, and I'm not going to do that because I don't think
that's right."

It's a noble stance, but the absolutism of right and wrong in
regards to scheduling will be difficult to maintain as conferences
improve and multiply, and the quest for at-large bids further
intensifies. At some point, Division III lacrosse will expand to
the point where the current regional approach will be revisited and
revised, forcing coaches into more difficult scheduling
choices.

As for the immediate future of the Clark Cup, the Centennial
presidents are scheduled to vote soon on Washington College's
request to alter the schedule and allow the Shoremen and Gulls to
return to their usual spot on the third Saturday in April for 2015.
It's anything but a rubber stamp. Because it involves moving bye
weeks for several different conference teams for a schedule that
has already been approved through 2016, it's not a simple fix. And
if it's not approved, the War on the Shore will remain as a midweek
midseason game until the '17 campaign.

That's not what either coach or team wants, but scheduling
doesn't happen in a vacuum. Emotional bonds to decades-long
rivalries take a back seat to conference ties, strength of schedule
and other variables. Whereas in years past when the D-III world
stopped to see who won the War on the Shore, that non-conference
game now simply provides numerical data on the spreadsheets sitting
in front of the selection committee.

Not one coach in Division III has ever put together his perfect
schedule. There is always one opponent he'd love to get on the list
and one SOS-killing conference foe that he could do without. So the
eternal struggle will continue in hopes of getting as close as
possible.